Great galloping hoards of sugary sweetness, today is National Chocolate Eclair Day which means it’s time to break out your favorite pair of stretchy jeans and indulge in the yummy treat.
The eclair, which is said to have originated in France around the turn of the 19th century, is popular icing topped pastry that is stuffed with an assortment of different fillings. Some of the more popular eclairs are filled with coffee pudding, chocolate flavored cream, custard, and even pistachio and various fruits.
Are you salivating yet?
If so, hurry on out to your nearest grocery store and pick up one or two of the cake-like logs in lieu of the holiday, even if culinary snobs refuse to acknowledge the supermarket version of the treat as a “genuine eclair.”
According to chef Pierre Hermé, one of the most famous pastry chefs in the world, to produce a real eclair, a baker must prepare pâte à choux, a dough that generates the necessary steam to hollow out a giant cavity into which a pastry chef can pump that lush vanilla cream, something that your local Walmart bakery apparently doesn’t do.
Feeling up for the challenge of making your own chocolate eclair? Head on over to Apple Pie, Patis & Pate’s website where they lay the steps necessary to re-create Herme’s version of the chocolate dessert.
